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BMS deploys Schrödinger's agentic AI platform across drug discovery

Schrödinger (Nasdaq: SDGR) and Bristol Myers Squibb announced a strategic software agreement to deploy Bunsen, Schrödinger's agentic AI co-scientist...

BMS deploys Schrödinger's agentic AI platform across drug discovery

Bristol Myers Squibb is deepening its investment in AI-driven drug discovery by deploying Schrödinger's agentic AI platform, Bunsen, across its research organization under an expanded strategic software agreement. The deal expands a long-standing software licensing relationship between the two companies and adds a collaborative component in which BMS scientists will work with Schrödinger to develop novel functionality within Bunsen. No financial terms were disclosed.

Bunsen is an agentic AI platform built specifically for molecular discovery workflows. Unlike general-purpose AI systems, it is optimized to execute Schrödinger's physics-based computational methods — planning and running multi-step discovery workflows and interpreting results autonomously. The agreement also covers Schrödinger's broader computational chemistry platform for large-scale chemical space exploration and RetroSynth, its AI-driven retrosynthetic planning tool that evaluates synthetic feasibility and proposes bench-ready pathways for computationally prioritized molecules. Schrödinger reported Q2 2026 annual contract value (ACV) of USD 29.6 million, representing 27% growth, with the Bunsen early access launch cited among recent operational highlights.

The deal is a platform-level software deployment. Schrödinger said it will collaborate with BMS scientists to co-develop new Bunsen capabilities alongside the deployment, extending the scope beyond standard enterprise software access.

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The agreement builds directly on a prior Schrödinger–BMS relationship established in November 2020, under which BMS paid Schrödinger USD 55 million upfront against up to USD 2.7 billion in milestones to leverage its physics-based platform for small molecule drug discovery. The new Bunsen deal is framed by both parties as a significant expansion of that foundation. The deal bears comparison with Schrödinger's November 2024 partnership with Novartis, which combined a USD 150 million upfront payment and up to USD 2.3 billion in milestones with an expanded three-year software licensing agreement giving Novartis industry-scale access to Schrödinger's computational platform. The BMS–Bunsen agreement sits within a broader AI infrastructure build-out at BMS that has also included a July 2026 NVIDIA compute expansion and a May 2026 enterprise deployment of Anthropic's Claude across BMS's global operations.


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